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Producer, songwriter, instrumentalist James Yamrus ready for album release

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Feet to the Fire: Despite loss, we are Penn State proud

With all of Luzerne County’s woes neatly fixed, Luzerne County Council members have decided to apply their prodigious problem-solving skills to another field: Public school teacher strikes.

Apparently the county budget has been balanced, an annual surplus arranged to pay down the massive county debt quickly, and all departments amply staffed for optimal constituent service — all with no tax hike, of course.

That would be the logical assumption upon reading that council members Stephen A. Urban and Kathy Dobash want to turn their attention to teacher strikes, urging that Harrisburg outlaw them.

As Jennifer Learn-Andes <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/news/local/621620/proposal-to-ban-teacher-strikes-to-be-discussed-with-legislators" target="_blank">reported </a>in Tuesday’s Times Leader, the pair want the topic to be included in an upcoming session with state legislators.

Clearly, if county council members have time to mull an issue that has nothing to do with county governance, it would make sense to expect other problems with things that do involve the county are resolved.

The fatal elevator flaw that led to the death of a corrections officer and an inmate must have been fixed. Indeed, one expects a new county prison is in the works.

The call for new voting machines that leave a paper trail so results can be double checked? Well, they must be on their way.

That effort to get millions out of a complicated tax incentive program related to Highland Park and Coal Street changes? Money in the bank.

The lawsuit over the county’s share of $7.3 million paid for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Triple A baseball franchise is also a done deal, with more big bucks in county coffers, one would hope.

The list of real county issues and concerns the council should work on is long. It does not include “ending public school teacher strikes.” That belongs in the purview of school boards, school districts and school property taxpayers.

Dobash made no claim it does fit council’s agenda, while Urban made a link more tenuous than a strand of spider web silk: The county sponsors Luzerne County Community College, and teachers there have a right to strike.

Please. By that logic county council should be setting school cafeteria menus as well.

Few, if any, would argue teacher strikes are an unwelcome disruption of both student education and family planning. A strong case can be made for banning them, or requiring binding arbitration to avoid them, though there are effective arguments on labor’s side as well.

But it is an education debate, and last we checked, none of Luzerne County’s 10 employee unions are teaching in schools.

It is true six of the 10 county unions have a right to binding arbitration — thus making the topic of how the process is conducted a legitimate county council concern. But that was not what Dobash and Urban were talking about.

The two would do well to worry less about public school teacher strikes on county council time, and to remember a lesson presumably imparted by their own best teachers years ago.

When given an assignment, avoid distractions and stay on task.

Our view: Dobash, Urban are wasting council’s time